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Storm surges threaten US economic heartlands

THE next time a Katrina-like hurricane strikes, it could be the Big Apple, not the Big Easy, that finds itself underwater. The New York area hasn’t experienced a hurricane since 1985, and Manhattan a direct hit since the 1800s. Yet forecasters say because we’re midway through a roughly 25-year cycle of warm waters in the Atlantic Ocean, conditions are ripe for a major hurricane to hit the north-east coast of the US within the next few years.

“The east coast, and the north-east in particular, is overdue for a hurricane statistically,” says Michael Wyllie, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in …